What’s in the American Health Care Act and what it means for us
BY Joe Paduda
Contributing Columnist
With all the back-and-forth and grandstanding on Capitol Hill, it’s no wonder there’s a lot of confusion about Republican efforts to overturn the ACA aka Obamacare. Here’s what would happen if the Republican bill titled the “American Health Care Act” becomes law.
Before we jump into this, here’s the most critical issue for us. AHCA will make individual health insurance completely unaffordable for families that don’t make at least three times the average income here – that’s about $90,000.
That’s because AHCA has a provision that hits people in two states – California and, you guessed it, New York. The AHCA prohibits the use of subsidies to buy insurance plans that cover services such as abortion, services that are mandated by law in New York. So, even the poorest among us – and even those who make decent-but-not great money would have to pay full price for health insurance – no subsidies, no cost sharing assistance, no support whatsoever.
Nationally, 14 million Americans will lose their healthcare next year. 9 million more will lose coverage over the next nine years according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Here in Onondaga County, over 45,000 would be without healthcare. That’s one out of ten of us.
Cuts to Medicaid would force some seniors out of nursing homes – and force nursing homes to either lose a lot of money or cut back on care for their patients.
Those fortunate enough to get healthcare through their employers would not be immune, as more than 15,000 residents would be uninsured when their bosses stop providing health insurance.
The federal deficit would drop about $119 billion over the next decade, primarily due to much lower spending on Medicaid.
Because many of us won’t be able to “buy” health care, healthcare jobs are going to be slashed – we can expect to lose over 1000 good paying jobs paying a total of $60 million in wages. With 11 of the 15 occupations with the most job openings over the next six years in healthcare, the future outlook will get a lot dimmer too.
Over the short term, the confusion in Washington is causing major headaches for insurance companies. One big problem is the uncertainty about Cost Sharing Reimbursement payments. CSR payments go to lower-income people buying individual insurance through the Exchange and directly from insurers. These payments help folks pay for deductibles, co-payments, drug costs, and other services.
If President Trump gets rid of CSRs – which he can do with the stroke of a pen – insurance companies are going to lose a ton of money because their members won’t be able to pay deductibles, so they’ll have to. And, if insurance companies think CSRs are going away – or even might go away, they’ll raise their rates. A lot.
Insurance companies can’t stand uncertainty, and that’s what they have today – in spades. Unless Mr Trump guarantees those CSRs are going to stay, insurance companies are likely to err on the side of caution and jack up premiums. As many Onondaga County residents receive CSR support, this is going to hurt.
There’s much that must be done to fix ACA, and the sooner our politicians focus on those fixes the better for all of us. Unfortunately, the longer they delay, the worse the problems get.
